RAMALLAH, West Bank --An open diplomatic row during the visit of Vice President Joe Biden has shined a spotlight on the U.S. failure to rein in Israeli settlement ambitions and deepened Palestinian suspicions that the United States is too weak to broker a deal.

Sad, but true.

Biden's handshakes and embraces gave way to one of the strongest rebukes of Israel by a senior U.S. official in years after Israel's announcement during his visit that it plans to build 1,600 homes in disputed east Jerusalem. Israel apologized for the poor timing but is sticking to its plan to build the homes....

What does that tell you?

The vice president on Wednesday assured Palestinians the U.S. is squarely behind their bid for statehood and urged the sides to refrain from actions "that inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of talks."

**********

Israel's announcement was widely seen as a slap in the face to its all-important U.S. ally.

Oh, yeah, same is true for that Israeli appendage we call the United States Congress.

It stirred significant anger among U.S. officials and widespread skepticism about whether the Obama administration would have the courage or the backing to take Israel to task as the U.S. relaunches long-stalled peace negotiations.

Ha!

The future of those talks was called into question late Wednesday when the Arab League recommended withdrawing support for them.

"This is a global message of American weakness and Israeli arrogance," said Palestinian lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi.

Yeah, I THINK EVERYBODY GOT IT!

The vice president's visit had been largely aimed at repairing U.S.-Israeli ties strained over the very same issue now overshadowing Biden's trip....

Translation: He was going to get the administration's marching orders.

Biden condemned the Israeli announcement and pointedly arrived 90 minutes late to a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Yeah, THAT WILL PUNISH THEM!!

Any SANCTIONS or AID CUT-OFFS coming, Joe?

Obama still signing the checks?

Yeah, he wants to stay alive, doesn't he?

Israel's oblique response to the row -- that Netanyahu was blindsided by the announcement, that no one meant to offend Biden, that in the future the prime minister would make sure sensitive announcements are routed through him -- did not appear likely to put the matter to rest.

You know, the LYING BULLS*** is WORSE than the ACT!!

It WENT THROUGH HIS OFFICE and NEEDED HIS SIGNATURE!!!

This was a DELIBERATE ACT to SHOW the WORLD who is wearing the pants in the "special relationship."

The words of Interior Minister Eli Yishai, whose office ordered the new homes -- "I am very sorry for the embarrassment ... Next time we need to take timing into account" -- only reinforced the feeling that there would in fact be a "next time."

Yeah, EXACTLY!!

And all these brilliant guys running Israel tone-deaf to public relations?

Sure SELL THEMSELVES VERY WELL at AIPAC and to the U.S. CONgress!!!!

It appears President Barack Obama now has the choice of absorbing the blow or engaging in a politically unpalatable battle with the Israeli leadership, which past U.S. presidents have largely avoided. Obama may be too invested in key domestic problems, the Iran nuclear issue and two wars to walk into that political minefield.

The Palestinians largely lost faith in the U.S. as a broker after Obama tried -- and failed -- to get the hawkish Netanyahu government to stop building on lands Palestinians claim for a future state.

They are NOT the ONLY ONES!!

Plenty of Americans are feeling the same way!

Netanyahu eventually agreed to a construction slowdown rather than a freeze, but that did little to mollify Palestinians....

Why should it?

After 60+ years of being shat on?

And THERE is WHERE the PP cut comes!

Anything worth saving from the cutting room floor?

Ministry spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said the ministry routinely issues announcements of planning decisions immediately after they are taken. This is not the first time that such announcements have dovetailed with visits by top U.S. officials. Plans for hundreds of settlement apartments were announced during the peace mission of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Yeah, DIDN'T I REMARK UPON THAT above?

Israel could end up paying for this slap by seeing amplified U.S. pressure to make concessions....

PFFFFFFFFTTT!!!

The condemnation appeared likely to exacerbate a widespread feeling in Israel that Obama is less friendly to the Jewish state than his predecessors.

You better VET YOUR SECURITY SERVICES REAL GOOD, Obama!

Either that or bend over.

Still, Israeli leaders have traditionally been reluctant to openly spar with the United States, and Netanyahu could pay a domestic price....

That's it! I'm sick of swimming in Zionist s***.

The European Union also urged Israel to reverse its decision "and to refrain from unilateral decisions and actions that may jeopardize" negotiations. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called it a "bad decision at the wrong time." Germany said the plan was "not acceptable" given the two sides' recent agreement to renew talks.

From the windows of his limousine Wednesday, Biden was able to see many of the region'spoints of contention -- including several enormous east Jerusalem settlements and the towering gray cement slabs of Israel's West Bank separation barrier.

Oh, so JOE took a ONCE-OVER LIMO RIDE to give it a LOOK-SEE, huh?

And we call it the APARTHEID WALL around here, sorry.

In Bethlehem, the city of Jesus' birth, the vice president toured a Palestinian quarry and stopped at a local souvenir shop where he bought a small golden cross.

"How many such visits have we already had?" asked Rizek Qassis, a Palestinian butcher from the nearby town of Beit Jalla, as he watched the scene. "They come, shake hands, go home, and we remain behind, like always."

The Obama administration has opted to turn these events into something that borders on ugly. Knowing full well that the Israeli governmental coalition is a complicated affair that the prime minister has worked hard to carry with him in order that Palestinian demands can be met, and knowing that Netanyahu had already apologized for the announcement, the Obama administration deliberately took a course that it knew would inflame anti-Israeli intransigence throughout the Arab world, and would undermine support for Israel in the United States.

Yeah, but crapping in our face time and again is no problem, 'eh?

First, the president sent out Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to condemn the Israeli bureaucratic stupidity as an “insult to the United States,’’ and then he sent out spokesmen Robert Gibbs and David Axelrod to continue the assault on Israel, feeding the outrageous nonsense that Israel’s internal debate over how to protect its citizens constituted a threat to American servicemen.

Notably, this was from an administration that had stayed conspicuously silent for 14 months while Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refused even to negotiate with Israel, and as Abbas openly pursued a strategy of stonewalling peace talks because he could do so without fear of any consequences. Indeed, the administration has from its inception purchased the proverbial Brooklyn Bridge of Middle East affairs, namely, the false notion that Israeli settlements are the impediment to peace....

Awwww, are you feelin' so sorry for the lying, land-stealing, mass-murdering, war-criminal *ew, dear readers?

By the same token, when the administration resorts to the sort of ugliness that it has over the last week, it raises serious questions among Israelis and others about whether Obama can be trusted to protect the security of Israel.

Interesting word choice, huh?

I hear gunshots and the sound of Joe Biden taking the oath, don't you?

Wow, this is an OPINION PIECE in the BOSTON GLOBE?

When did they become an extreme Zionist outfit?

Oh, right, been one for a long time now.

Yup, ISRAEL'S SECURITY comes BEFORE America's, Obama!!

Why not? I guess that's why they "selected" you for president.

This, in turn, hardens the suspicion of the Israeli right that the president is prepared to sacrifice Israeli security in order to garner the political capital that comes with proclaiming a diplomatic win, and makes it less likely that the right will take risks for peace — at least risks dictated by the United States.

Honestly, I'M TIRED of ZIONIST INSULTS about OUR American PRESIDENT!!!!

And now I know he is sunk when the Zionists editorialize for some "tough love."

"Tough love for Israel

Somehow they turn it around to empathic love, watch:

SECRETARY OF State Hillary Clinton delivered the right message to the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Monday night, declaring that America’s commitment to Israel’s security is “rock solid, unwavering, enduring and forever’’

That is why I'm not taking her bulls*** criticism seriously.

By the same token, Obamamust recognize that Netanyahu will not take political risks for peace unless the Israeli public is on board.

There is THAT WORD again!

Sort of a subtle signal about who is in control from the Zionist War Daily, isn't it?

So Obama, who reached out to Arabs and other Muslims with his Cairo speech last year, needs to convince Israelis that his current display of tough love is just that — and that the deepest interests of Israelis, Americans, and Palestinians converge in a peace accord based on two states for two peoples.

Vice President Joe Biden posed for pictures yesterday near Tel Aviv with his wife, Jill, members of a US aviation regiment, Israeli soldiers, and the nation’s defense minister, Ehud Barak. (Bernat Armangue/Associated Press)He was over there taking orders, folks.

JERUSALEM — Vice President Joe Biden yesterday assured Israelis that the United States is determined to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and urged Arab states, equally worried about Tehran’s nuclear program, to take steps toward peace with Israel.

Biden drew a link between the effort to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions and that of trying to push forward peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

“They are connected indirectly, but there is a relationship,’’ Biden said in a speech at Tel Aviv University.

Beyond reaffirming US support for Israel’s security, Biden told Israelis that “the status quo is not sustainable’’ in terms of the conflict with the Palestinians and pressed Israel to make a peace deal with President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad of the Palestinian Authority.

Biden said Israel should act while it still has partners who share the goal of a two-state solution.

Biden welcomed a statement released by the office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, shortly before he took to the podium in which he emphasized that the construction of 1,600 homes in a disputed area of Jerusalem would not begin for at least a year.

The announcement of construction in Ramat Shlomo overshadowed Biden’s trip, meant originally as a celebration of the US-Israel alliance. It caused the Palestinians to balk at returning to US-mediated negotiations on a final peace deal.

The approval of new housing forced Biden to condemn Israel’s actions.

Netanyahu took pains to mend fences, saying he regretted the timing of the announcement, though not the actual building itself.... it would not be canceled.

I'm tired of the fake food fight.

Biden hoped that would be enough to salvage indirect negotiations on the future of Jerusalem. But the Palestinians said yesterday that they want the project revoked before talks begin....

After doing the back-channel thing I trust the PA Palestinians as much as the Israelis, and they are the only ones the USraelis talk with.

Abbas told Amr Moussa, Arab League secretary general, on Wednesday that he had decided not to enter the talks for now. The Arab League had endorsed a four-month framework for the US-mediated negotiations.

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered an investigation into how government officials announced plans for a new Jewish housing project in east Jerusalem during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden. Netanyahu’s office said he ordered the investigation late yesterday. While Biden was visiting last week, Israel’s Interior Ministry said it approved plans to build 1,600 homes for Jews in disputed east Jerusalem. Biden condemned the announcement, which overshadowed his visit. Netanyahu has apologized for the timing but did not say he would cancel the permits (AP)."

Pffft!

Yeah, nobody is buying the BS anymore, Israel.

You blew it, you arrogant f***s.

Now destroy yourselves quickly like all criminal enterprises and empires.

"Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.... brushed aside suggestions that US-Israeli relations are in crisisand reaffirmed America’s steadfast commitment.... Clinton also said US and Israeli officials are in intense talks about how to repair the damage... Clinton suggested the United States wanted to move beyond the feud"

Yeah, pass that salt shaker over. I'm going to need a lot of grains to get through this.

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel yesterday that Israel had sent a “deeply negative signal’’ about the US-Israeli relationship and urged him to take immediate steps to demonstrate that it was interested in renewing efforts at a Middle East peace agreement.

Yeah, whatever, Hitlery.

Clinton spoke to the Israeli leader by telephone. Her call, made in the wake of the embarrassment suffered by Vice President Joe Biden this week when Israel announced it would build 1,600 housing units in a disputed area of Jerusalem, was an unusually tough message for the longtime US ally. It came two days after Biden condemned the action that was announced while he was in Israel, and demonstrated that Netanyahu’s efforts to mollify the administration have fallen short....

Relations with Israel have been strained during the Obama administration, and Biden’s trip was intended as a fence-mending mission. Now it has led to the biggest crisis between the two countries in two decades....

"Netanyahu seeks to defuse tensions over US-Israeli dispute; Urges calm after outcry over plans for new building" by Amy Teibel, Associated Press | March 15, 2010

JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister tried to play down a serious diplomatic dispute with the United States yesterday, urging calm after another stern rebuke from Washington over plans to build 1,600 new apartments for Jews in contested east Jerusalem....

Israel’s already strained relationship with the United States hit a new low last week when it announced the construction plans during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden. The timing of the announcement deeply embarrassed the Obama administration....

The United States responded with repeated condemnations, including a lecture from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton over the weekend. A senior White House official added another stinging rebuke yesterday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has been trying to dispel the notion that relations with the United States have degenerated into a crisis. His attempt yesterday to ease concerns were his first public comments since the feud erupted.

“We opened the newspapers this morning and read all kinds of commentary and assumptions regarding the crisis with the US. I recommend not to get carried away and to calm down,’’ Netanyahu told his Cabinet. “There was a regrettable incident that was done in all innocence and was hurtful, and which certainly should not have occurred.’’

Netanyahu, however, gave no indication that he would cancel the east Jerusalem construction plan, despite warnings from Washington....

“Israel and the US have mutual interests,’’ Netanyahu told the Cabinet, pointedly adding, “but we will act according to the vital interests of the state of Israel.’’

Biden condemned the plan, using exceptionally harsh diplomatic language. But at the end of his visit Thursday, he toned down that criticism in an apparent effort to keep the feud from escalating.

"Israel feels rising anger of US over settlements; Netanyahu says there will be no compromise" by Mark Landler and Ethan Bronner, New York Times | March 16, 2010

Of course, the article is a complete reedit and rewrite.

I'm sick of the censorship games, folks.

WASHINGTON — An ill-timed municipal housing announcement in Jerusalem has mutated into one of the most serious conflicts between the United States and Israel in two decades, leaving a politically embarrassed Israeli government scrambling to respond to a tough list of demands by the Obama administration.

The White House has put Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a difficult political spot at home by insisting that the Israeli government halt a plan to build housing units in East Jerusalem. The administration also wants Netanyahu to commit to substantive negotiations with the Palestinians, after more than a year in which the peace process has been moribund.

With special envoy George J. Mitchell suddenly delaying his planned trip to Israel, the administration was expecting a call from Netanyahu, after a tense exchange last week with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Yesterday, however, Netanyahu sounded a defiant note, telling the Israeli Parliament that construction of Jewish housing in Jerusalem was not a matter for negotiation.

He is struggling to balance an increasingly unhappy ally in Washington with the restive right wing of his coalition government.

The prospects for peace in the Middle East seemed murkier than ever, as a year’s worth of frustration on the part of President Obama and his aides seemed to boil over in its furious response to the housing announcement, which spoiled a visit to Israel by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

“What happened to the vice president in Israel was unprecedented,’’ said a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Where it goes from here depends on the Israelis.’’

But the diplomatic standoff also has repercussions for the White House. Its blunt criticism of Israel — delivered publicly by Clinton in two television interviews on Friday and reiterated Sunday by Obama’s political advisor, David Axelrod — has set off a storm in Washington, with pro-Israel groups and several prominent lawmakerscriticizing the administration for unfairly singling out a staunch American ally.

“Let’s cut the family fighting,’’ said Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut. “It’s unnecessary; it’s destructive of ourshared national interest. It’s time to lower voices, to get over the family feud between the US and Israel. It just doesn’t serve anybody’s interests but our enemies.’’

I would expect him to say that, and we know where Joe's true loyalty lies.

Relations between Israel and the United States have been uneasy ever since Obama took office with a plan to rekindle the peace process by coupling a demand for a full freeze in Jewish settlement construction with reciprocal confidence-building gestures by Arab countries.

Neither happened, and Obama, who is not as popular in Israel as he is elsewhere around the world, was forced in September to make do with Netanyahu’s offer of a 10-month partial moratorium on settlements in the West Bank....

That tells you all you need to know about WHO is CALLING the SHOTS in the "special relationship."

The administration has used language designed to telegraph anger, defining the dispute not only in terms of the damage it could cause to the peace process but to the American relationship with Israel.

“That is a whole different order of magnitude of importance,’’ said Daniel Levy, a former peace negotiator who is senior fellow and head of the Middle East Initiative at the New America Foundation, a research group.

The last time relations between the United States and Israel became this strained, analysts said, was when James A. Baker, then secretary of state, clashed with the Israeli government in the early 1990s, also over settlement policy. The United States ended up withholding loan guarantees from Israel for a time....

There is a feeling among officials in Washington that the Netanyahu government does not fully grasp how angry Obama officials have grown. But there are signs that it is sinking in.

"Palestinians take to streets in Jerusalem; Clash with Israelis over construction; US envoy cancels visit" by Amy Teibel, Associated Press | March 17, 2010

JERUSALEM —The diplomatic dispute was sparked by Israel’s announcement last week of plans for 1,600 apartments in East Jerusalem, which undercut a visit by Vice President Joe Biden aimed at bolstering peace talks. Palestinians claim that sector of the city for a future capital, while Israel claims all of the holy city as its eternal capital.

The announcement enraged Palestinians, who have threatened to bow out of US-brokered peace talks that were supposed to begin in the coming days. The Obama administration has angrily demanded that Israel call off the project.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio yesterday that demands to halt construction “are unreasonable.’’ He predicted the row with the United States would blow over....

Hasn't it already?

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton brushed aside suggestions that US-Israeli relations are in crisis and reaffirmed America’s steadfast commitment to that nation’s security....

Clinton also said US and Israeli officials are in intense talks about how to repair the damage caused by Israel’s announcement....

Interior Minister Eli Yishai, in an interview with the Associated Press, also expressed regret over the dispute with Washington and said Israel was taking unspecified measures to defuse the situation. But an aide poked an AP reporter in the back when he asked about the contentious construction plan, and Yishai abruptly ended the interview....

"Israel lifts extended closure of West Bank as tensions calm; No new clashes are reported in Jerusalem" by Amy Teibel, Associated Press | March 18, 2010

JERUSALEM — The recent violence has taken place against a backdrop of deep Palestinian frustration over a yearlong standstill in peace talks and dovetailed with the worst US-Israeli diplomatic feud in decades.

On Tuesday, the United States and Israel signaled they were trying to move beyond the crisis that erupted when Israel announced plans to build 1,600 apartments in disputed East Jerusalem during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit last week. Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone Tuesday night, Israeli officials said.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not disclose the substance of the talk....

JERUSALEM — With pressure increasing from global mediators yesterday, Israel and the Palestinians appeared likely to resume American-mediated indirect peace talks despite a flap over construction of Jewish homes in East Jerusalem.

Meeting in Moscow yesterday, a group tagged the Quartet of Mideast peacemakers — the United States, Russia, European Union, and United Nations — called on Israel and the Palestinians to return to negotiations with a goal of reaching a peace deal that would create a Palestinian state within two years.

In a strongly worded statement read by the UN’s secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, the group reiterated its condemnation of Israeli construction in disputed East Jerusalem, promised to closely monitor developments there, and renewed its call for a halt of settlement activity.

But it did not escalate the feud over Israel’s plans, announced last week, to build 1,600 apartments in an East Jerusalem Jewish neighborhood. Speaking in Moscow, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested the United States wanted to move beyond the feud and get indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks started.

The announcement of the construction, during a visit to Jerusalem last week by Vice President Joe Biden, angered Washington. Clinton criticized Netanyahu this week, demanding steps from Israel to get talks going. Clinton reportedly asked Israel to revoke its building decision, roll back plans for new Jewish homes, and make goodwill gestures such as releasing Palestinian prisoners and lifting some West Bank roadblocks.

Yesterday, after a telephone conversation with Netanyahu, she took a positive tone. “What I heard from the prime minister in response to the requests we made was useful and productive,’’ Clinton said....

Looks like I better get ready to clean up, huh?

Lot of MSM bulls*** around here.

The Quartet announcement was made ahead of a week of heavy diplomatic activity.

Ban is scheduled to arrive in the region today. US Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell returns tomorrow to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders in hopes of getting the peace process restarted after a 15-month lull.

Netanyahu departs late tomorrow to Washington, where he would probably meet Biden and Clinton. A spokesman said Netanyahu suggested a series of confidence-building measures in his Thursday phone conversation with Clinton....

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The settlement announcement has sparked outrage and protests from Palestinians, as well as condemnation from Israel’s closest ally — the United States....

The announcement — which came during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden — prompted a major diplomatic row between Israel and the United States, though Clinton suggested Friday that a way could be found to renew negotiations. Clinton has asked Netanyahu for specific gestures, including canceling the most recent housing plan, and is to hear from the Israeli leader in a meeting in Washington this week.

Senior US officials in Washington say Netanyahu apparently has put in writing the pledgeshe made to Clinton during their telephone conversation Thursday.

Yeah, bulls***, and even if he did the promises are worth about as much as the paper they are written on.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe contents of a private diplomatic contact between Clinton and Netanyahu.

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared yesterday that Israel would not restrict construction in East Jerusalem, a step the United States has requested.

Netanyahu stuck to his position hours before he set off on his first trip to Washington since a diplomatic row erupted between the allies....

Netanyahu’s refusal to budge on East Jerusalem, the fate of which lies at the crux of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, defies a US demand to cancel a major housing project at the heart of the feud. But in confidential talks, he apparently offered enough steps to prompt US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to call them “useful and productive’’ and dispatch an envoy back to the region this week.

Before meeting with Israel’s defense minister yesterday, envoy George Mitchell described ties between the US and Israel as “unshakable.’’

Which means all this food-tossing is bulls***.

Netanyahu departed for Washington last night to address the annual conference of the pro-Israel lobby in the US. He will meet President Obama tomorrow, a spokesman said.

WASHINGTON — The United States and Israel engaged in overtime talks yesterday trying to win agreement on gestures Israel can take to restore confidence among Palestinians and the Obama administration and salvaging a diplomatic visit marred by the worst US-Israeli breach in years....

Earlier yesterday, the Obama administration challenged Israel to explain yet another announced plan to expand Jewish housing in East Jerusalem, the same issue that soured US-Israeli relations ahead of Netanyahu’s three-day visit to Washington this week.

Is that ever an IN-YOUR-FUCKING-FACE MOVE or what?

But, yeah, Iswael is so sowwy!!!!

Netanyahu offered no concessions during his visit....

What, he FORGET HIS PIECE of PAPER?

PFFFFFFTTT!!

An aide to Netanyahu said the prime minister was caught off guard by the announcement yesterday that the Jerusalem municipality has approved 20 new apartments for Jews.

Stop lying, please.

Although Obama and Netanyahu met for a total of two hours, the White House did not issue a formal statement on what was discussed in either meeting.

"Obama’s visit to Afghanistan took place against a backdrop of tension between Karzai and the Americans.... Karzai warmly received one of America’s most vocal adversaries, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, on an official visit to Kabul in early March and met with him againthis past weekend in Tehran when the two celebrated the Afghan and Iranian new year together....

AmeriKa's MSM coverage selections are amazing, huh?

Yeah, dump this in the middle of the piece hoping no one will read it, NYT.

Last week, Karzai made a three-day trip to China, a country that is making economic investments in Afghanistan, notably its copper reserves, taking advantage of the hard-won and expensive security efforts of the United States and other western nations....

Well, we will just have to go to WAR with CHINA then!

So we are SECURING the AREA for CHINESE INVESTMENT, 'eh, America?

That is why your SOLDIERS are DYING?

“He’s slipping awayfrom the West’’"

Oh, THAT is why Obomber so suddenly flew halfway around the world.

Has he visited Indonesia like he was supposed to before the health care hell?

Meanwhile, see what COVER STORYS*** the MSM is shoveling:

"Obama presses Karzai in surprise Afghan visit; Wants more steps against corruption" by Alissa J. Rubin, New York Times | March 29, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Obama personally delivered a pointed criticism to President Hamid Karzai in a face-to-face meeting yesterday, flying here for an unannounced visit that reflected growing vexation with Karzai as America’s military commitment to defeat the Taliban insurgency has deepened.

Obama’s visit, which had been shrouded in secrecy and lasted only a few hours but included a boisterous pep rally for American troops, was the first trip by him as president to the site of an eight-year-old war he has stamped as his own....

Yeah, he is ACTING and SOUNDING MORE like George W. Bush every day!

And don't worry, the American people now view these wars as HIS WARS anyway, and hold him WHOLLY RESPONSIBLE from here on out!

The visit capped a high-profile week for Obama, in which he achieved a singular victory domestically — signing health care legislation — and reached an arms control agreement with Russia that calls for the two powers to slash their nuclear arsenals to the lowest levels in half a century.

Yeah, bully for him.

Obama’s visit to Afghanistan took place against a backdrop of tension between Karzai and the Americans that has not substantially abated since Karzai was declared the winner of an election tainted by fraud.

What, after we validated his stolen election?

The United Nations, the US, and other NATO countries have demanded that Karzai make major overhauls in the electoral system, tacitly indicating that they might withhold money for the next election if they do not see changes.

This is MSM BULLSHIT, readers!

Karzai recently overhauled the election complaint commission, but made it less neutral by giving himself the right to appoint all five members. Currently three of the members are appointed by the United Nations. The move infuriated some Western diplomats here who saw it as almost a taunt.

At a conference in London at the end of January, Western officials made it clear that they felt Karzai had fallen short on the issue of corruption. Recently, he has strengthened the anticorruption commission, and the attorney general appears to be moving forward on a handful of high-profile cases involving former government figures. Still, corruption remains pervasive, and Karzai has not used his position as a bully pulpit to change the culture.

“He’s slipping away from the West,’’ said a senior European diplomat in Kabul.

And THAT is why OBAMA WENT!

Karzai warmly received one of America’s most vocal adversaries, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, on an official visit to Kabul in early March and met with him again this past weekend in Tehran when the two celebrated the Afghan and Iranian new year together.

Karzai returned to Kabul only hours before Obama landed.

Last week, Karzai made a three-day trip to China, a country that is making economic investments in Afghanistan, notably its copper reserves, taking advantage of the hard-won and expensive security efforts of the United States and other western nations.

Air Force One landed at night at Bagram Air Base after a 13-hour nonstop flight for a visit kept secret for security reasons, and Obama quickly boarded a helicopter for Kabul.

Did Obama happen to look in on the torture chambers while he was there?

And thanks for warming up the planet some more.

White House officials did not give advance notice of the trip and even went as far as telling reporters that Obama would be spending the weekend at Camp David with his family.

Oh, so THIS WHITE HOUSE DECEIVES the MSM just like the LAST ONE, huh?

Yeah, some change!

In fact, the president’s trip occurred during the Afghan night, and he was flying back to Washington before most Afghans awakened this morning.

Besides General Jones, Obama was accompanied by Rahm Emanuel, his chief of staff, and a number of other officials from the White House and the Defense Department.

Yeah, the MOSSAD MOLE making sure the agenda is advanced.

Obama also met with about 2,500 of the tens of thousands of American troops who have been sent to Afghanistan since he took office. His visit with the troops is particularly significant because American combat casualties in Afghanistan have risen sharply while he has been commander in chief.

Why, MORALE LOW?

In the first three months of 2010, at least 83 American service personnel have died in Afghanistan, compared with 43 in the first three months of 2009, according to icasualties.org, a database of casualties in the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts.

The number of military personnel wounded in combat has also spiked dramatically. Military officials have warned that casualties are likely to continue to rise sharply as the Pentagon completes the deployment of 30,000 additional forces, under the strategy that Obama announced in November.

Casualties are higher, military officials said, because American forces are aggressively seeking out Taliban insurgents in the country’s population centers, and are planning a major operation in Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban, in the coming months.

There is that spiritual thing again.

Civilian casualties also have risen sharply.

Who?

Yesterday hundreds of Afghans rallied outside a government building in Kunduz Province to protest a NATO air strike in the country’s north that killed seven police officers last month, the Associated Press reported. Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry said six civilians were killed Saturday in two roadside bomb explosions, including one in Sangin district and one in Nawa district.

Yup, you get all of ONE PARAGRAPH near the ass end of the NYT PoS, civilians of Afghanistan.

You know, the people we are "helping."

“Al Qaeda and their extremist allies are a threat to the people of Afghanistan and a threat to the people of America, but they’re also a threat to people around the world,’’ Obama told the troops. “My main job here today is to say thank you on behalf of the entire American people. You are part of the finest military in the history of the world. And we are proud of you.’’

Bush leave behind a cue card for you, Obomber? Sound just like him!

And if we are so great, why is Iraq and Afghanistan taking so long?

What is he going to say when the crumbling AmeriKan Empire falls?

For the American troops, the visit by their commander in chief was a long time coming.

Yeah, you tell 'em, NYT!

After all, it was YOUR LIES that got them sent there!

While Obama visited troops at Camp Victory in Iraq three months after he was inaugurated, the White House had held off on a presidential trip to Afghanistan as Obama went through a rigorous months-long review of Afghanistan strategy, and as that country endured the twists and turns of a disputed election.

"Senior Obama administration officials say some of [money] may be going to the Taliban, aspart of a protection racket in which insurgents and local warlords are paid to allow the trucks unimpeded passage....“willful blindness’’ on the part of a US military that “likes having its trucks showing up and doesn’t want to get into the details of how they got there....US military officials say they are satisfied with the results.... regularly paying local warlords and the Taliban"

WASHINGTON — Hamed Wardak, the soft-spoken, Georgetown University-educated son of an Afghan Cabinet minister, has a Defense Department contract worth up to $360 million to transport US military goods through some of the most insecure territory in Afghanistan. But his company has no trucks.

Instead, Wardak sits atop a murky pyramid of Afghan subcontractors who provide the vehicles and safeguard their passage.

US military officials say they are satisfied with the results, but they acknowledge they have little knowledge or control over where the money ends up.

But it is NOT A PROBLEM, huh?

Where are the U.N SANCTIONS or at least the CALL for them, 'eh?

Oh, right, Afghanistan is not Iran.

According to senior Obama administration officials, some of it may be going to the Taliban, as part of a protection racket in which insurgents and local warlords are paid to allow the trucks unimpeded passage, often sending their own vehicles to accompany the convoys through their areas of control.

The essential question, said an American executive whose company does significant work in Afghanistan, is “whether you’d rather pay $1,000’’ for Afghans to safely deliver a truck, even if part of the money goes to the insurgents, or pay 10 times that much for security provided by the US military or contractors.

It's called WAR PROFITEERING, America, and AIN'T IT GREAT!?

I guess you now know why the TALIBAN are NEVER DEFEATED, huh?

President Obama made a surprise trip to the country Sunday to press President Hamid Karzai to do more to clean up corruption in Afghanistan.

Pffft.

Yeah, whatever, MSM!

Congress has warned repeatedly that US assistance depends upon progress in this area.

Yup, sure, Congress is going to cut off funding.

I have been waiting for that since 2006 when DemocraPs took over.

The US is increasing its military presence in Afghanistan and is preparing, along with NATO forces, for an assault on the Taliban’s spiritual home in the southern city of Kandahar.

There you go; spirituality is back.

A senior military official said yesterday that the offensive will begin in June, the Associated Press reported.

The likelihood that US money is finding its way to the enemy as well as lining official pockets — allegations Wardak says could be true for other transport contractors but for not his company — is “one of the many very important things that came to light’’ during last fall’s White House strategy review, an administration official said.

Oh, like here in AmeriKa!

The problem extends beyond military supply transport to Afghan-provided security for reconstruction and other US-funded projects, according to John Brummet, audit chief for the congressionally mandated special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, known as SIGAR.

“If you go to the US Embassy, to USAID, to the Army Corps [of Engineers] and ask if they can assure that their money is not going to the Taliban, they’d be hard-pressed to say,’’ he said.

Prime contractors such as Wardak’s NCL Holdings, Brummet said, “say that subs take care of their security,’’ but US officials “do not have visibility on who is providing it.’’

According to Ray Dinunzio, SIGAR chief investigator, “there is no database in the US government’’ that provides reliable subcontractor information.

I gue$$ $ome people and thing$ do not belong in a government databa$e, huh?

The US-led coalition command in Afghanistan does not dispute that assessment. Although there is “rigorous’’ oversight of prime contracts, the command said in a statement, “the relationships between contractors and their subcontractors, as well as between subcontractors and others in their operational communities, are not entirely transparent.’’

How much double-talk can you down, readers?

I'm full up.

Both Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton raised the issue in congressional testimony explaining Obama’s new strategy. Clinton called “siphoning off contractual money from the international community . . . a major source of funding for the Taliban.’’ Corruption, she said, “frankly . . . is not all an Afghan problem.’’

Yeah, so POUR MORE IN and PAY OFF the "enemy."

But DON'T TALK PEACE with them, no, no!!!

Congressional investigators who have opened an inquiry into the Defense Department’s $2.16 billion Host Nation Trucking contract described what one called “willful blindness’’ on the part of a US military that “likes having its trucks showing up and doesn’t want to get into the details of how they got there.’’

You see the RACKET, readers?

Representative John F. Tierney, Democrat of Massachusetts, chairman of the national security subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, opened an investigation in December into what he said were “serious allegations . . . that private security providers for US transportation contractors in Afghanistan are regularly paying local warlords and the Taliban for security.’’

In letters to Gates and each of the eight trucking firms, Tierney asked that all documents related to the transport operations and security subcontractors be provided to the subcommittee by mid-January.

GENEVA — Afghanistan remains mired in poverty, corruption, and violence despite an estimated $35 billion in aid being poured into the country between 2002 to 2009, the United Nations said yesterday.

So WHO STOLE IT ALL, huh, TAXPAYERS?

A report by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights asserts that more than two-thirds of Afghans live in dire poverty.

That is what EIGHT YEARS of LIBERATION have brought?

Many are disillusioned with their government and the international community for failure to provide basic needs such as security, food, and shelter, it said.

No, we have been too busy destroying the place and killing people.

And I KNOW JUST HOW the AFGHANS feel re: government!

“Widespread corruption further limits access to services for a large proportion of the population,’’ the report found, accusing Afghan officials of advancing their own interests at the expense of the general population.

Wow, Americans know JUST HOW YOU FEEL, Afghans!

Women, ethnic minorities, and people with disabilities suffer the worst discrimination, it said.

Wow, Americans know JUST HOW YOU FEEL, Afghans!

The 26-page report also criticized the international community for placing too much emphasis on security and too little on long-term development.

Well, development was never really an option other than looting tax dough.

More than eight years after a US-led military coalition ousted the Taliban, Afghanistan has the world’s second-highest maternal mortality rate and the third worst rate of child mortality, according to the report.

I'll bet the bombings, missiles, and combat operations has not helped.

“Only 23 percent of the population have access to safe drinking water, and only 24 percent of the population above the age of 15 can read and write,’’ it said.

Yeah, but recent operations are getting hospitals and schools up and rebuilding the place, yup.

A spokesman for the UN human rights office said the world was failing to address these problems despite pledging a new beginning for the country at a 2001 conference in Bonn, Germany.

For many Afghans, the only way to survive is to take up arms and perpetuate the “vicious circle’’ of war and poverty that has plagued the country.

"The training includes.... having officers watch videos of American TV crime shows such as “CSI: Las Vegas’’ and courtroom movies such as “My Cousin Vinny.’’"

That's a joke, right?

No, America, I'm afraid it is not.

And what is worse is the way the CIA's favorite newspaper wraps this turd for you:

"US aims to instill trust in Afghan justice; Works to train police and bring order to courts" by Keith B. Richburg, Washington Post | March 14, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — Behind the combat troops and military trainers, alongside the aid workers and agriculture experts, come the lawyers.

That's not a liberation.

US State Department legal specialists and contractors are fanning out across the capital and throughout the provinces, trying to build a functioning legal and correctional system in a broken country where justice is too often delayed, denied, or nonexistent.

Yeah, NEVER MIND the INDEFINITE DETENTIONS and TORTURE occurring at BAGRAM, GITMO, or any of the black hole sites, etc, etc.

Related:

"The Obama administration, which is considering plans to indefinitely detain dozens of Guantanamo Bay prisoners without civilian or military trials"

I believe the word is HYPOCRISY!

And look at the agenda-pushing, war-promoting, AmeriKan MSM gushing about how great this is:

The widespread sentiment that there is no justice in Afghanistan is a principal cause of popular disillusionment with the government of President Hamid Karzai. The feeling has been exploited by the militant Taliban, which dispenses its own brutal version of summary justice in areas under its control.

Yeah, us Amurkns are going to show them how to oppress and torture the right way!

You know what? It is THEIR FUCKING COUNTRY! Leave them alone!

Oh sorry, that gives us the right to flatten the countryside with depleted uranium munitions over a fucking lie.

The US-led effort is already showing results.

I really can not take much more horse s*** propaganda, folks.

Near the end of a seven-month American training course for prosecutors and police officers, a prosecutor from Takhar Province, Abdul Zaher, said: “Afghans are used to torturing suspects. In this course, we’ve learned to stop because it’s illegal. If we have a suspect in custody, we’ve learned how to treat him.’’

Oh, the TORTURING AmeriKans showed you that, huh?

Yes, dear readers, I am SICK of the FUCKING MSM INSULTS, too, can you tell?

The problems here affect every level of the justice system, from police to courts to prisons.

Because there are not enough attorneys, many suspects are sentenced to prison without ever seeing a defense lawyer as required by the Afghan constitution. Many prisoners languish in jailpast the time they can be legally held without a trial.

Yeah, WE are going to show THEM how to do it.

Pfffffft!

Some of the problems were on display during a recent court session at the country’s main intelligence office, the National Security Directorate, which tries terrorism suspects. In a cramped room, the prosecutor read the charges aloud while one of the three judges talked on his cellphone and another sent text messages.

There was no computer, telephone, or electricity. The prosecutor carried court documents in a green plastic shopping bag. Judge Abdul Baset Bakhtiari told one suspect he was being sentenced to six years in prison for belonging to the Taliban but said the man could appeal. The defendant angrily demanded a copy of the charges against him, and the judge burst out: “We don’t have a photocopier! You want the judge to pay for this out of his own salary?’’

Judges complain they have no equipment, no cars to travel to court, no government-issued phones, and, most importantly, no security — many are threatened, some have been kidnapped, others killed....

So WhereTF did all that aid money go?

Nearly everyone agrees the system is awash in corruption.

Yeah, the AmeriKans will fix that!!

The wealthy or those with connectionsrarely face punishment....

So it is NO DIFFERENT than the AmeriKan Justice System!

US officials recognize those doubts about the system here.

“This is one of the most important challenges that we face,’’ said David Johnson, assistant secretary for the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. “People have to be confident that justice is being done.’’

Un-flipping-fucking-real!

The bureau is working with police and prosecutors to develop a computerized case management system for the courts. Its $100 million budget is projected to nearly double next year.

Yes, that is YOUR TAX MONEY AT WORK, America!

Good thing you didn't need it for anything.

The challenge is daunting. Afghanistan is divided into 34 provinces and 400 small districts, and fewer than a hundred of those districts have an assigned prosecutor. Most have no defense lawyers and no courts.

Well, they have TALIBAN COURTS, but.... talking AmeriKa's MSM here.

To bring some order to a system with 15,000 active criminal cases nationwide, a US contractor developed a relatively simple system in which each case was assigned a number and a colored folder with a form for such basic information as the defendant’s name, arrest date, arresting police officer, prosecutor, and judge.

Gee, I wonder how much they overcharged for that one.

About a third of the cases have entered the new system — in the process of reviewing cases to create the files, authorities found that 128 prisoners were incarcerated beyond their terms.

Even before suspects are arrested, investigations must be improved, US officials have said. They have created training for police and prosecutors — in many cases, the sessions mark the first time the two Afghan groups have trained together.

The training includes staged crime scenes with wooden dummies for corpses, marked off with red and white tape to keep onlookers at bay. The sessions also include providing officers with copies of the Afghan constitution and penal code, fingerprint kits, and digital cameras — and having them watch videos of American TV crime shows such as “CSI: Las Vegas’’ and courtroom movies such as “My Cousin Vinny.’’

“CSI’’ may make for gripping television, but US District Court Judge Nancy Gertner says forensic evidence isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be.

But we have the Afghans watching it and learning.

In a move that some legal scholars said may be the first by a federal judge, Gertner has ordered defense lawyers and prosecutors not to assume that evidence routinely accepted in the courts for decades is reliable. Defense lawyers, she wrote, should vigorously challenge fingerprints, bullet identification, handwriting, and other trace evidence, and prosecutors should be prepared to show it is valid.

“In the past, the admissibility of this kind of evidence was effectively presumed, largely because of its pedigree — the fact that it had been admitted for decades,’’ Gertner wrote in a March 8 order. “As such, counsel rarely challenged it, and if it were challenged, it was rarely excluded or limited.’’

I CHALLENGE EVERYTHING the lying government and agenda-pushing MSM say now.

TOO much lying for far too long.

That needs to change, she said. A critique last year by the National Academy of Sciences, she noted, concluded that forensic evidence used to convict thousands of defendants for nearly a century is hardly the infallible proof of police procedurals on television. Too often, the study found, it is the product of sloppy practices that should be improved and standardized.

And here we are TEACHING the Afghans with the stuff!!

They ALREADY KNOW how to FRAME PEOPLE, according to the WaPo!!

Spurred by the report and criminal cases she has presided over, Gertner wrote that the validity of such evidence “ought not to be presumed’’ and that defense attorneys should contest it at pretrial hearings, or explain why they do not.

Oh, don't worry, it isn't here.

She will allow the evidence to go before a jury only if it meets sound scientific principles.

That is why there will never be a real investigation and trials regarding the INSIDE JOB of 9/11. No way those buildings falling down contrary to the immutable laws of physics could ever be explained.

Defense lawyers and advocates for people who have been wrongly convicted of crimes welcomed Gertner’s order.

“It’s a wakeup call not only to other judges and to prosecutors but frankly to defense attorneys who for years — despite the rising tide of scientific reports indicating that many of the so-called tried-and-true disciplines were not in fact so true — rarely did their homework to mount serious challenges,’’ said Peter Neufeld, a cofounder of the New York-based Innocence Project. The nonprofit group uses DNA evidence to exonerate wrongly convicted prisoners.

I hope you get a good attorney, Afghans.You will be one up on Americans then.

Neufeld, who testified before the panel of scientific and legal experts that produced last year’s report on forensic evidence, said a recent study he co-wrote for the Virginia Law Review found that flawed forensic testimony contributed to 60 percent of 137 wrongful convictions later overturned through DNA evidence. That makes misapplied forensic evidence the second-leading cause of wrongful convictions, behind eyewitness misidentification, he said.

And if you can not trust DNA evidence.... OUT of COURT it goes!!!

A spokeswoman for US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz of Massachusetts declined to comment on Gertner’s order.

Jennifer Mnookin, a professor at UCLA’s School of Law and leading scholar on expert and scientific evidence, said she was unaware of any other federal judge who has issued such an order, although judges have refused to let shaky scientific evidence go before juries after pretrial hearings.

Mnookin said forensic testimony is highly persuasive to juries but that the February 2009 study by the National Academy of Sciences, the nation’s most prestigious scientific body, underscored that the evidence often does not meet the basic requirements of good science.

Can you even call it "evidence" at that point?

She said, for example, that fingerprint experts often make extravagant claims on the stand, such as that a latent fingerprint recovered at a crime scene could only have come from the defendant and no one else in the world.

Which episode was that?

Gertner, who is generally popular with the criminal defense bar but viewed skeptically by some officials in law enforcement, has long been critical of such claims....

Well, the fascistas have forfeited their right to trust, so....

In recent years, the reliability of some forensic evidence has been attacked because experts misinterpreted it or because the science behind it was discredited.

Yeah, right, the authorities innocently misinterpreted it,pfffft!

As for discredited science, that doesn't seem to bother the MSM or authorities when it comes to the great fart misting, 'er, global warming.

In 2004, for example, the National Academy of Sciences issued a report discrediting the FBI technique of matching the chemical signatures of lead in bullets at crimes scenes to similar bullets possessed by suspects. The FBI discarded the technique.

And HOW MANY PEOPLE were convicted with that "evidence" before?

Also in 2004, a prison inmate, Stephan Cowans of Roxbury, was exonerated in the 1997 gunshot wounding of a Boston police sergeant after law enforcement officials acknowledged that a thumbprint on a glass mug found near the crime scene had been misidentified as his.

Yeah, sure!

They GOT THEIR GUY and TAILORED the EVIDENCE to FIT like they do ALL the TIME here!!!

And what good are all these databases anyway?

Sounds like they have too many of them.

In the wake of the blunder, the city shut down the police fingerprint unit until it was overhauled.

John H. Cunha Jr., a Boston lawyer who failed to persuade the state Supreme Judicial Court in 2005 to bar fingerprints analysis from being presented in all state criminal trials until it was subjected to rigorous scientific scrutiny, said....

Translation: OUR COURTS DON'T CARE about TRUTH or JUSTICE!

Enjoy, Afghans!!!

“Just because something’s been around for a hundred yearsdoesn’t mean it’s reliable. Astrology has been around for centuries,’’ he said. “The stakes are too high in our society to be using junk science and putting it before juries which think that it’s gold.’’

Yeah, you don't want me showing up in your jury pool if you are a prosecutor -- especially since I'll be a stealth juror.

Can't trust the cops, end of story.

Shouldn't take long for Afghans to get acclimated to AmeriKan Justice then.

Update:

"Afghan detainees held in isolation in secret prison; US military camp exempt from policy" by Alissa J. Rubin, New York Times | November 29, 2009

KABUL, Afghanistan - A US military detention camp in Afghanistan is still holding inmates for sometimes weeks at a time and without access to the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to human rights researchers and former detainees held at the site on the Bagram Air Base.

EVEN HITLER let the RED CROSS IN, AmeriKa!!!!!

The site consists of individual windowless concrete cells, each lighted by a single light bulb glowing 24 hours a day. The former prisoners said their only contact with another human being was at twice-daily interrogation sessions.

The jail’s operation highlights a tension between President Obama’s goal to improve detention conditions that had drawn condemnation under the Bush administration and his desire to give military commanders leeway to operate. In this case, that means isolating certain prisoners for a time so that interrogators can extract information or flush out confederates.

Yup, NO CHANGE HERE!!!

While Obama signed in January an order to eliminate so-called black sites run by the CIA, that order did not apply to this jail, which is run by military Special Operations forces. Military officials said as recently as this summer that the secret Afghanistan jail and another like it at the Balad Air Base in Iraq were being used to interrogate high-value detainees. And officials said recently that there were no plans to close the detention centers.

Translation: Obama is WORSE THAN BUSH!!!

Obama told us he was going to END SECRET TORTURE at SECRET SITES!!!

In August, the administration restricted the time that detainees could be held at the secret jails to two weeks, changing previous Pentagon policy....

Like that means anything. Just another lie, right?

Detainees call the Afghan site the black jail.

“The black jail was the most dangerous and fearful place,’’ said Hamidullah, a spare-parts dealer in Kandahar who was detained in June and who, like some Afghans, doesn’t use a last name. “They don’t let the ICRC officials or any other civilians see or communicate with the people they keep there. Because I did not know what time it was, I did not know when to pray.’’

Hamidullah was released in October, after five and half months in detention, five to six weeks of it in the black jail, he said. Although his and other detainees’ accounts could not be independently corroborated, each was interviewed separately and described similar conditions. Their descriptions also matched those obtained by two human rights workers who had interviewed other former detainees at the site. While two of the detainees were captured before the Obama administration took office, one was captured in June of this year.

All three detainees were later released without charges. The three did not say they had been tortured, though they said they heard sounds of abuse and felt humiliated and roughly treated.

Well, THAT is TORTURE in my book!!

Others, however, have given accounts of abuse at the site, including two Afghan teenagers who told The Washington Post that they had been subjected to beatings and humiliation by American guards. All three former detainees interviewed by The Times complained of being held for months after the intensive interrogations were over without being told why.

HOW DARE WE CRITICIZE ANYONE over "human rights," AmeriKa!?

Neither Pentagon nor White House officials would comment publicly because the existence of the site is classified. The black jail is separate from the larger Bagram detention center, which now holds about 700 detainees, mostly in cages accommodating about 20 men apiece.

Cages, huh?

Like you would PUT an ANIMAL in, right?

That center will be closed by early next year and the internees moved to a new larger detention site.

Oh, I'm sure the Afghans LOVE that "liberation!"

In early 2008, military officials acknowledged receiving a confidential complaint from the International Committee of the Red Cross that the military was holding some detainees incommunicado.

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